sister-hood is an award-winning digital magazine spotlighting the diverse voices of women of Muslim heritage.

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Opinions

Women of Muslim heritage share their opinions about the most urgent issues affecting them today.
Opinions

A year of pressure on hijabis

2020 was full of surprises. The severity of the stress we experienced mounted through the year. From the beginning, we witnessed tragic and unsettling events worldwide. The constant pressure has affected everyone on many levels. The level of uncertainty is…

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Opinions

The freedom to offend

The term ‘Islamophobia’ was coined to define anti-Muslim bigotry but in reality, the usage of this term has degraded it to a tool to censor unwanted and opposing views. A recent Twitter row between two prominent British writers, Ash Sarkar…

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Opinions

Symbolic power and moral panic in Pakistan

The Karol Ghati Jungle – Lahore-Sialkot Motorway Gang Rape On 9th September 2020, a mother was gang-raped in front of her children on Lahore-Sialkot Motorway Link Road in the area of Karol Ghati Jungle. The victim became known as the…

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Opinions

Beyond sexual objectification

The Karol Ghati Jungle – Lahore-Sialkot Motorway Gang Rape Reviewing the many incidences of rape in Pakistan over the past few months, one is forced to ask: is everything now a sex object for Pakistani men? Everyone seems to be…

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Opinions

Motorways and marriages

The Karol Ghati Jungle – Lahore-Sialkot Motorway Gang Rape Statistics on marital rape are difficult to acquire. The greater power within marriage is that of the husband, just as it was in the West before feminism. Women still stay in…

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Opinions

Nature versus nurture

The Karol Ghati Jungle – Lahore-Sialkot Motorway Gang Rape Is rape sex? No. Rape is violence. Rape is destruction. Rape is oppression. Rape causes social death. Rape can often lead to physical death. Rape is not sex. Therefore all testosterone…

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Opinions

Making excuses for rape

The Karol Ghati Jungle – Lahore-Sialkot Motorway Gang Rape Modern language cannot capture the depth a word has in ancient languages: each has a whole universe within it. The Arabic word jabr or jbr – meaning fracture – must be…

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Opinions

Punishments for rape

The Karol Ghati Jungle – Lahore-Sialkot Motorway Gang Rape ‘Is this place safe for my mom?’ A boy, apparently aged seven or eight, held this poster in a protest march against the Motorway gang-rape incident. His face was masked, but…

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Opinions

Pornography and public morality

The Karol Ghati Jungle – Lahore-Sialkot Motorway Gang Rape Liberals often criticise legislation on public morality as an unnecessary restriction upon individual freedom. However, it should be understood that apparently private and victimless offences (for example, the recreational use of…

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Opinions

Islam’s perspective on rape

The Karol Ghati Jungle – Lahore-Sialkot Motorway Gang Rape The codification of unacceptable behaviours is necessary for any community or state so that social order can be maintained in accordance with the expectations of the people. These expectations are mostly…

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Opinions

Pakistan’s struggling civil society

The Karol Ghati Jungle – Lahore-Sialkot Motorway Gang Rape The successes and failures of women’s rights activism have become all too apparent after the Karol Ghati jungle gang rape of 9th September 2020. Rape, and the physical, psychological and emotional…

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